Guernsey return from Siam weekend empty-handed

The home side regained the second oldest trophy in rugby union on Saturday as they beat Guernsey Raiders 42-25 as part of a ‘red wash’ day at St Peter where the hosts lifted all four trophies on offer by also winning the women’s, second team and veterans’ matches.

In the headline game, Jersey got off to a flier as they quickly established a 17-3 lead thanks to two converted tries and a penalty apiece, but an intercept try from Ciaran McGann and another Raiders score brought them back to within a couple of points.

Jersey added another penalty before the interval to lead 20-15 at half-time.

Owen Thomas briefly reduced the arrears to two again shortly after the break, but two more tries from Jersey put them in a strong 32-18 lead going into the final quarter.

McGann scored his second try of the game to briefly give Guernsey hope, but a further try and a penalty sealed the home side’s victory.

‘There is disappointment, but I thought Jersey played exceptional today and I’m happy to be beaten by a better side,’ said Guernsey director of rugby Jordan Reynolds.

‘If you look at the mistakes we have, we struggled to exit a lot of the time, they just kept piling on that pressure, but hands down you’ve got to give it to them.

‘For what we put on them back in May [last year], they’ve just thrown it back onto us.

'That’s an amazing 12 months for them and it makes it exciting again. Everyone thought the Siam Cup had lost its allure after we beat them those two times.

‘Hey, we had our May, they’ve had theirs and today I think that was probably one of the best Siam performances I’ve seen against us in a long time.’

Guernsey Raiders Ladies found themselves trailing 26-0 at half-time in the Women’s Siam, and although they matched their hosts with one try apiece in the second half, with Daisy Travers touching down for GRL, the damage had been done as they lost 31-5.

‘I think we were outplayed, the better team won, Jersey deserved it,’ said Guernsey coach Steve Evans.

‘There were some good individual performances, but we didn’t play together as a team.

‘We strung it together in bits and pieces, five minutes here, 10 minutes there, but not over the whole 80 and you cannot afford to do that in any game, let alone a Siam.

‘So well done to Jersey, and we go again next season.’

That defeat came after Jersey had won the veterans’ Nash Cup 31-24 in the opening match, while the day concluded with Jersey Seconds inflicting a first defeat of the season on St Jacques Vikings as they won a hard-fought Fallaize Cup encounter 41-26.